Redraw wards without the drama and expense

As the Chicago City Council struggles to redraw ward boundaries, it's become increasingly clear that too many of Chicago's aldermen live in an alternative universe — one that is destructive, wasteful and out of touch with the modern world where the rest of us live.

The once-every-10-year process of resizing Chicago's 50 wards and redistributing its citizens appears to have broken down, with black aldermen lining up on one side and Hispanic aldermen on the other, each arguing for an extra ward or two. This opens the door to the very real possibility that the issue may go to voters as a referendum in March — at an estimated cost of $30 million. A legal challenge to a map could also cost the city plenty.

As they squabble, aldermen risk wasting taxpayer dollars they know the city can ill afford.

They also risk transporting Chicago back a generation, to a time when racial politics dominated and tore the city apart. Some wounds have only begun to heal. It won't take much to rip them wide open.

It's time for the city's retro aldermen to return to 2011 and draw a map that everyone can live with. Race is not the only variable that matters. Chicagoans also care about respecting neighborhood boundaries, avoiding gerrymandered wards that undermine good service and further polarizing this city by race and ethnicity.

That said, this newspaper strongly supports ensuring adequate representation for every group, as fairness and the law demand. And in 2011, the city's Hispanic population deserves special consideration.

Despite the addition of 210,000 Hispanics to Chicago's population between 1990 and 2000, Hispanic representation in City Council barely changed after the last remap. By 2010, the city's Hispanic population had grown by another 25,000 — compared to a loss of 181,000 African-American residents during the same period. It is hard to argue against adding more majority Hispanic wards and subtracting African-American ones.

Coming up with a fair and equitable ratio is one of the things Chicagoans elected aldermen to do.

Get to it, minus the drama, minus risking one precious taxpayer dollar.

Pull Quote: A legal challenge to a map could cost the city plenty.